MAC: Mines and Communities

Themes

Introduction to Money Page

Money may make the world go round, but as billions of people know to their cost it can also irrevocably distort viable economies and destroy lives.

Never more so than since the "financial nuclear winter" of 2008, fall-out from which is still very much with us.

These unprecedented (but not unpredictable) events adversely impacted the mining industry and its workers more than almost every other. It has still not "recovered" - and may never again attract the degree of investment it did a decade ago.

But "expert" opinion continues to widely differ on just what the future holds. The nature and direction of the money directed at the minerals sector has certainly changed over the past four years.

Nontheless, most of the private investment banks, insurers, government and multilateral agencies that placed their faith in mining before 2008 continue doing so.

Through this page, we aim to deepen awareness of who these money-makers are and how they operate.

If you click on the name of your own bank or insurance company you'll discover some of the companies or projects they're backing.

We also urge you to access a major piece of ongoing research, funded by the Heinrich Boell Foundation, that explains how mine finance works, along with a growing data-base of hundreds of funders and companies.